Strangers in the Night

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I’m not sure how I got my hands on the first one. It might’ve been a Photoplay, one of the big glossy movie magazines.  

I would get them from the drugstore--they were a quarter, could that be? Why my mother let me read them I’ll never know, but I would devour them. Looking at the glamorous movie stars, the beautiful clothes, and the stories of dancing and desire and romance and spotlights.  I believed every word of it. 

 Of course, I had no idea about publicists, or press releases, or the dark side of Hollywood, or even… lighting. But I knew about costumes and headlines and The Brown Derby. Being discovered at…Schwab’s?  And I knew, completely knew, that someday I would be a movie star. What can I say, I was… 11. 

(Hallie saw the reality, I know, but for  little girl me in Zionsville, Indiana, it was a fabulous glorious magical possibility.)

Did you know Ava Gardner came from Grabtown, North Carolina? Her real name was Ava Lavinia Gardner, and when she arrived in Hollywood, , she married Mickey Rooney, and then Arties Shaw  and then…. Frank Sinatra dumped his wife for her. That’s not all. It was the stuff of dreams, and now, courtesy of the brilliant Heather Webb, the stuff of fiction. 

(And ooh, Heather’s giving away a book to one lucky commenter! And just look at that fantastic cover!)

Old Hollywood Glitz and Glam, and the Allure of Toxic Relationships 

     by Heather Webb

What is it about toxic relationships that we find so appealing to read or watch? (Certainly none of us wants to be in one!)

I found myself asking this question as I wrote my new novel, Strangers in the Night. It’s the story of Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner, their wild and rocky relationship, the glamor and the underbelly of Old Hollywood, and the cost of celebrity.

There’s so much more to it, too; different kinds of love, sexism in Hollywood, the studio culture, friendship, too. But one thing that really stood out to me as I was deep in my pile of research was the very real draw in reading about toxic relationships. 

I got to thinking about what draws me in personally. It boiled down to a few points.

 1.) Fascination. I found the way Frank and Ava interacted on such an unhealthy level truly fascinating. How long would someone put up with poor behavior in a relationship before they called it quits? Would they grow from their failures? What would they learn about themselves in the process? These are a few of the questions that fascinated me. Plus all of that delicious information about movie sets and starlets and music honors, and more…  

2.) Sympathy. I felt for both Frank and Ava, as they struggled to do their best—and their worst—to corral their passions and achieve that intangible goal of loyalty and lasting love. Love may make everything better, but it also makes everything harder. This is a universal truth, and I couldn’t help but sympathize with them as they struggled to arrive at some comfortable, perfect happy medium. Plus, I could sympathize since I’ve had my own toxic relationship. 

3.) Trappings of Control and the struggle for balance. Toxic relationships often thrive on an imbalance of power, even if that imbalance is imagined. I truly delight in watching people/characters find their footing, learn to exercise their own voice, step into who they truly are and who they want to be. I admire those who can restore the balance to their lives and absolutely root for these characters to come into their own. 

What about you? Why are you drawn to watching or reading about toxic relationships? Or do you avoid them altogether?

HANK: Oooh. They say people watch car accidents on TV news to reassure themselves that it’s NOT them. Maybe it’s the same thing?

What do you think, Reds and readers?  And were you fans of Frank and Ava?

And did you read movie magazines? What are your memories of that? (And are you singing doobie doobie doo now, like I am?)

Heather Webb is the USA Today bestselling and award-winning author of nine historical novels, including The Next Ship Home, Strangers in the Night, and the up and coming Queens of London. In 2015, Rodin’s Lover was a Goodread’s Top Pick, and in 2018, Last Christmas in Paris won the Women’s Fiction Writers Association STAR Award. Meet Me in Monaco, was selected as a finalist for the 2020 Goldsboro RNA award in the UK, as well as the 2019 Digital Book World’s Fiction prize. To date, Heather’s books have been translated to seventeen languages. She lives in New England with her family, a mischievous kitten, and one feisty rabbit.